Arthur Guiterman (November 20, 1871 Vienna – January 11, 1943 New York) was an American writer best known for his humorous poems.

Life and career

Guiterman was born of American parents in Vienna. His father was Alexander Gütermann, born in the Bavarian village Redwitz an der Rodach, and his mother was Louisa Wolf, born in Cincinnati. Arthur graduated from the City College of New York in 1891, and later was married in 1909 to Vida Lindo. He was an editor of the Woman's Home Companion and the Literary Digest. In 1910, he cofounded the Poetry Society of America, and later served as its president in 1925–26. An example of his humour is a poem that talks about modern progress, with rhyming couplets such as "First dentistry was painless;/Then bicycles were chainless". It ends on a more telling note: New motor roads are dustless, The latest steel is rustless, Our tennis courts are sodless, Our new religions—godless. Another Guiterman poem, "On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness", illustrates the philosophy also incorporated into his humorous rhymes: The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls Of mastodons, are billiard balls. The sword of Charlemagne the Just Is Ferric Oxide, known as rust. The grizzly bear, whose potent hug Was feared by all, is now a rug. Great Caesar's bust is on the shelf, And I don't feel so well myself. Perhaps his most-quoted poem is his 1936 "D.A.R.ling" satire about the Daughters of the American Revolution (and three other clubs open only to descendants of pre-Independence British Americans). That poem has an intricate, strongly dramatic rhythmical structure. The D.A.R.lings chatter like starlings telling their ancestors' names, while grimly aloof, with looks of reproof, sit the Colonial Dames. The Cincinnati, merry and chatty, dangle their badges and pendants; but haughty and proud, disdaining the crowd, brood the Mayflower descendants. He also notably wrote the libretto for Walter Damrosch's The Man Without a Country which premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on May 12, 1937.

Poetry

Footnotes